Although the origins of this quote are uncertain, I find its clarity pleasing and it is a good summary of the seventh metalogue, discussing instinct: “A bird does not sing because he has an Continue Reading →

In this seventh metalogue, Gregory Bateson’s daughter asks him, “Daddy, what is an instinct?” Their conversation takes them on a journey that covers gravity, genes, chromosomes, learning to play the Continue Reading →

In this metalogue, Bateson and his daughter talk about the meanings evoked by dance. This teaches us something about what it takes to build a strong brand. Unfortunately, Bateson tells Continue Reading →

In this metalogue about innovation, Gregory Bateson talks about the need to break apart conventional thinking, yet also holding on to some deeper rules of the ‘conversation’ in order to avoid going mad. Continue Reading →

In the second metalogue (“Why do Frenchmen?”), Gregory Bateson tells us about how information can be communicated with gestures instead of words, and how that is a different sort of information from what we use words Continue Reading →

In this first, simple, metalogue (written in 1948) Gregory Bateson imagines a conversation between a daughter and her father. “Why,” the daughter wants to know, “do things get in a muddle?” Continue Reading →